seminolewar

January Seminole War Events

I have been really busy at work and with other things, so have not had the time to comment and write up my history essays like I do in the slower months. Work is hectic right now, and I have the Dade Battle reenactment next week. Not really looking forward to it—it is getting to be a pain in the rear when I have other things this time of year. And it always costs me a lot of money when I don’t need to spend anything. (Which is why I never attended Alafia—I am seriously out of money by that time of the month and cannot even afford gas to get out of town.) I want to post this before half of January is over and I realize I haven't posted it yet.

And before Marie reminds me—January is also the anniversary of the two battles of Loxahatchee. The park was just renamed Riverbend Battlefield Park—so look forward to future events there.

1 January 1836 - Deadline set by Indian Agent Wiley Thompson for the Seminoles to emigrate west by the Treaty of Paynes Landing and Fort Gibson. Thompson was killed four days earlier.

1 January 1838 - Seminole prisoners at St. Augustine are moved to Fort Moultrie, South Carolina. Included are Micanope, Coa-Hadjo, Little Cloud, King Philip, Osceola, and 200 others.

4 January 1818 - Americans from Fort Scott go to attack Fowltown, but find it deserted and burn it to the ground.

5 January 1802 - William A. Bowles takes a large force of Seminoles, Negroes, and pirates, and lays siege to San Marcos. This time he is unsuccessful and the siege ends after about 10 days. Bowles’ failure to take the fort discredits him among his Indian supporters.

6 January 1836 - Indians kill the Cooley family and burn their homestead near present day Fort Lauderdale.

8 January 1815 - The final Battle of New Orleans. Several hundred Miccosukee and Seminole Indians side with the British at the Battle of New Orleans, including Chief Bowlegs. They are not at the actual battle, but waiting to be deployed from ships that are miles away.

8 January 1844 - A ship stops for repairs on Phillips Inlet (Bay County) and the crew is befriended by Chief Old Joe and his band. Later, Chief Joe kills several of the crew when they are lured away from the ship onto the mainland.

9 January 1836 - Skirmish near Micanopy.

9 January 1843 - A band of Creeks under Chief Pascoffer surrenders at St. Marks and is sent out west.

12 January 1814 - American Patriots establish Fort Mitchell in Florida. They establish the “District of Elotchaway of the Republic of East Florida”, and claim the land for the United States. (Today the area of Alachua and Marion Counties.) They have no support from the United States government or Georgia, and are forced to abandon Florida after their leader Buckner Harris is killed by Indians on 5 May 1814. By this time the Alachua Seminoles and free Black Seminoles have moved to either Suwannee Old Town or Tampa Bay.

12 January 1836 - 200 mounted Florida Volunteer Militia soldiers under Colonel Parish have “a sharp encounter with a large body of Indians near Wetumpka,” believed to be in present-day northwest Marion County. They are ambushed by Seminoles but are able to drive them off. As night fell, the militia stayed in a defensive position at the battlefield until leaving the next morning.

12 January 1852 - Aaron Jernigan, a settler near Fort Gatlin (Orlando), leads a posse of local settlers on a hunt for Seminoles. They find a village at Lake Tohopekaliga and kill some of the Seminoles, and also kill the Indian livestock and drive off 120 hogs. Several of the local citizens complain to the Governor Thomas Brown, but the governor defends Jernigan. Brown says that the Seminoles should not have been that far north of the reservation boundary, and that if the Indians had livestock, it must have been stolen.

12 January 1853 - A law is passed in Florida that makes it unlawful for any Indians to be within the borders of the state. Another law the same month makes it illegal to trade with the Indians.

13 January 1835 - Assassination attempt against President Andrew Jackson by unemployed painter Richard Lawrence at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington.

13 January 1836 - General Hernandez abandons Bulowville plantation because there are not enough soldiers to defend it from attack. The Seminoles burn the structures shortly after.

15 January 1838 - A small naval expedition under Lt. L.M. Powell falls under heavy attack by Seminoles on the Loxahatchee River near Jupiter Inlet.

16 January 1792 - William Augustus Bowles with a large band of Creeks takes over and loots the Panton, Leslie, & Co. store in San Marcos (St. Marks).

17 January 1836 - Florida Militia soldiers fight Seminoles near Old Town while crossing the Suwannee River.

17 January 1837 - A Militia force from St. Augustine engages Black Seminoles at Hanson’s plantation. John Caesar, a very important Black Seminole leader, is killed in the battle.

18 January 1836 - Major Benjamin Putnam’s “Mosquito Roarers” Florida Militia unit retreats from the Dunlawton plantation after an attack by King Philip & Coacoochee’s force.

18 January 1856 - Seminoles attack a wood cutting party from Fort Denaud on the Caloosahatchee River.

21 January 1836 - President Jackson orders General Winfield Scott to take command of the forces in Florida.

21 January 1840 - Skirmish “near Suwannee.”

22 January 1841 - Battle near Fort Lauderdale.

23 January 1837 - Army forces attack an Indian camp near Lake Apopka. Chief Osuchee (known as Cooper) is killed, and is the most important chief killed thus far in the war.

24 January 1838 - The Battle of Loxahatchee/Jupiter Inlet. Heavy fighting in a well-defended hammock along the Loxahatchee River. General Jesup is wounded in the face during the battle. With the number of soldiers engaged, this is the largest battle during the war.

26 January 1836 - “Battle of Hitchity” near Bryants Ferry on the Chattahoochee River, in Stewart County, Georgia. A company of local militia fires upon 40 Creek warriors crossing the river. The Creeks defend their position on a bluff and drive off the militia.

26 January 1836 - General Winfield Scott arrives in Florida and soon comes in conflict with General Edmund P. Gaines over the military operations. Gaines had been ordered to proceed to the Texas frontier, but instead took a force of 500 regulars and 700 Louisiana Volunteers to Tampa Bay to fight the Seminoles. Gaines’ western department included west Florida, but Scott had been given command of the Florida forces. Scott later blames Gaines for ruining his campaign against the Seminoles, and Gaines blames Scott for intentionally abandoning him to the Indians without support on the Withlacoochee River.

27 January 1814 - The Battle of Calabee Creek. A large Red Stick Creek force under Red Eagle (Weatherford) ambushes Georgia forces with a high casualty rate on the Georgia side.

27 January 1837 - The Battle of Hatchee-Lustee Creek (Reedy Creek near Lake Tohopekaliga.) Army and Marine forces find and overrun a large Indian camp.

31 January 1838 - Osceola dies and is buried at Fort Moultrie, South Carolina. His physician Dr. Weedon secretly removes Osceola’s head before burial for his private collection.